Hands on: Epson 3800 pro – with a RIP

March 28, 2007

photo: Tariq Dajani copyright

Stockholm and London based photographer and Prodig subscriber Tariq Dajani writes about his experiences getting the prints he wants from the Epson 3800 Pro….

I finally feel like I’ve learned a lot about printing this week after spending hours churning out prints from an Epson 3800 Pro onto a variety of papers especially Hanemühle fine art photo rag and Innova cotton papers.

So here are my conclusions, some obvious, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

The Epson 3800 Pro is an outstanding printer and can produce fantastic prints with canned profiles. The only problem I’ve occasionally encountered with the machine is very slight ‘head strike’ on the back edges of the paper if it curls upwards as it is feeds through. This can be minimised by bending the paper’s back edges backwards before feeding through.

The best prints I’ve been able to produce using the Ultrachrome k3 inks on art rag paper look great but lack the contrast that is needed to give them that extra vibrancy. Placing them in plastic sleeves or behind glass seems to solve the problem. Unfortunately my folios and various other books I produce aren’t sleeved in plastic nor are behind glass.

I have also had major problems printing certain files on this type of paper as the gamut is somewhat limited with k3’s, resulting in blotchiness and solarised effects in edge shadows, certain tonal variation areas, etc… possibly due to excessive ink being laid down. This is the issue that I set out to resolve.

I tried loads of variations of print driver settings (perceptual/rel col; black point compensation on/off; velvet fine art/matt/archival) and a few different profiles from the canned ones to custom made ones. Some settings were total rubbish, others similar and almost perfect but not quite.

The Ultrachrome k3’s on glossy paper look fantastic. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the texture nor feel of most glossy papers. I haven’t had any problems producing good prints on glossy papers, the wide gamut is more than sufficient.

So Neil Barstow suggested that I try the 3800 Colorburst RIP, which at $495 is a pretty good deal. (Thanks again to Neil for helping to contact Colorburst to provide me with Innova environments for the printer)

I downloaded and installed the Colorburst RIP and the environments. Within minutes I was printing files. I used the standard settings for the environment and the results were very pleasing!
I can say without a doubt that the RIP produces much better prints on the art rag paper than the standard Epson driver. The tonal separations on a print are smoother and clearer and the image overall has more punch to it. No more blotchiness, no screwed up shadow edge areas … it was quite exciting to see the difference.

Using glossy paper the difference is more subtle but I would say the RIP still has the upper hand.

So … I still have 12 days left of my demo and I shall use them to print a batch of prints that I shall need before I head off on a several week trip. When I return, if I decide to stick to art rag paper or if I have an exhibition to do (which I hope will happen), then I shall get the Colorburst RIP. It will certainly be worth it.

If I decide to switch to a gloss/satin paper then I might wait a while…. $495 can buy a lot of paper, well just about 70 sheets of A2 of what I’d use!

To be honest, I didn’t expect to get such immediately pleasing results with the Colorburst RIP. But the proof is in the pudding! If you think you can produce good prints without a rip, you might just be able to produce better ones with (the right) RIP.